Monday, May 1, 2017

DAREDEVIL #175

The Plot: Daredevil pays a visit to Elektra as she meditates. She promises she does not love him and throws him out her window. Later, after checking on Heather and finding she's gone off to a party where he believes she can't be targeted by the Hand, Daredevil goes to protect Foggy from the ninja assassins as he makes his way to the courthouse for Melvin Potter’s trial. DD finds a card on one of the defeated ninjas, but Elektra arrives and grabs it from him, then heads for the address printed upon it.

As Foggy stalls, awaiting Matt’s arrival in the courtroom, Elektra arrives at a novelty shop and begins battling the Hand, with Daredevil soon arriving to aid her. As Foggy realizes Matt won't make it to the trial, Elektra encounters a hulking ninja named Kirigi, who proves impossible to kill. Foggy requests a mistrial while Elektra’s duel with Kirigi brings them to his master. Elektra runs the giant ninja through, sending him tumbling down the stairs, then turns her attention to the man who sent him. Daredevil arrives to confront her, but passes out.

Later, Matt shows up at the courthouse to find Foggy’s movement for a mistrial was successful, and Melvin is off the hook. Foggy reaffirms the future of Nelson & Murdock for the television cameras present. Elsewhere, the Kingpin gloats over his victory against the Hand, now driven out of New York thanks to his pitting Daredevil against them.Sub-Plots & Continuity Notes: We’re reminded during the conversation between DD and Elektra that they attended college together. (The following picture has nothing to do with that; I just wanted to post it because — well c'mon! She's throwing a sai while wearing a bikini!)

Heather dumps Matt "...for the third time this month.” She's back with him again by issue’s end.

Kirigi, the seemingly immortal ninja, makes his full debut here after a one-page cameo last issue.

My Thoughts: one of my favorite parts of this issue is a relatively minor item: it introduces, at least for the first time in Frank Miller’s run, the idea that Foggy is some sort of savant on the technical side of the law, in matters such as finding and citing obscure precedents to support a case.

I don't know if this is an invention of Miller’s or if it was an aspect of the character prior to this point, but whatever it's origin, I really like the idea. Matt is the resident showman of Nelson & Murdock; he's the guy who will examine and cross-examine and sway a jury with the passion in his words. But this ability is only as good as the details that back him up, and that's where Foggy comes in. He may not have the showboating charisma of Matt Murdock, but in his own way Foggy Nelson is just as good — if not better — at using the law to help his case.

And since the topic just came up, I'll not that this is one spot where I feel the otherwise quite excellent Netflix DAREDEVIL series falls short: in the comics, Matt Murdock is an excellent attorney with a great reputation, and he and Foggy are an outstanding team due to their skills complementing each other. On TV, meanwhile, Matt is a horrendous lawyer. He constantly misses work and court dates because he's out playing Daredevil all night, and it falls to a resentful Foggy to pick up his considerable slack.

And yes, pretty much that exact scenario happens in this issue, but it's an exception rather than the norm. Comic book Matt is an outstanding lawyer who rarely lets his career as Daredevil interfere with his work. He stays out all night fighting crime and then shows up the next day to crush it in the courtroom because he's just that good. I wish the Netflix series would pick up on this; I'd like the character a lot more on TV if he better resembled his comic book counterpart.

That's kind of Peter's thing, though -- and it's also worth noting that it was generally only his social life that suffered when he was Spider-Man. No matter how much he flirted with failing a class in school, his inherent genius would always pull out a passing grade in the end. Matt seems kind of the same way in that regard -- he's a brilliant, charismatic lawyer, and his legal mind and aptitude for showmanship generally covered for any lack of preparation on his part.

I was surprised how well Matt fared without his radar sense. He did mention the loss, in bald exposition, to Elektra — and had a line about hoping a flagpole would be where he remembered it — but overall his other senses picked up the slack. While that’s fine if this development isn’t supposed to be a big deal, I’m pretty sure it does become one; regardless, I’d expect the lack of radar sense to be quite disorienting at first no matter how quickly he adapts.

// She promises she does not love him and throws him out her window. //

I agree; Matt has way too easy of a time without his radar sense, to the point that you almost wonder why he needs it back in the first place. Aside from occasionally getting almost shot in the back, of course.

This entire little arc has always struck me a bit odd. Miller does away with the radar sense and then brings it back a couple issues later just as it was before. It seems like normally, if a writer were to go through all this, they'd have some bigger endgame in mind, like altering the power slightly or something.